Comedy

"Jest a Second!" -- the sequel to James Sherman's comedy, "Beau Jest" -- takes place one year later. So it's perfectly fitting that Totem Pole Playhouse is presenting the sequel exactly a year after its success with "Beau Jest."Like "Beau Jest," "Jest a Second!" is being directed by Wil Love, the popular Baltimore-based actor and director who is a longtime favorite at this Fayetteville, Pa., summer theater. In the new comedy, which opens Tuesday, the hero and heroine have married and are expecting a child.

Comedy Central today renewed "Drunk History" for a third season. The series, which features drunken performers recounting stories from our national past, is created by Lutherville native Derek Waters. This past week's epsiode featured three tales from Baltimore's past. Through the first four epsiodes of Season 2, the series' viewership is up 26 percent among adults 18-49. It's up 17 percent among all viewers. In its timeslot, Tuesdays at 10 p.m., it is the highest-rated original series in TV with men 18-34 years of age. Last season, "Drunk History" averaged one million viewers a week.

On April 20, 2003, EVELYN COMEDY. Friends may call at the FAMILY OWNED MARCH FUNERAL HOME EAST, 1101 East North Avenue on Sunday after 3 P.M. where funeral services will take place on Monday at 9:30 A.M. See www.marchfh.com

Baltimore is featured on the July 22 episode of "Drunk History" on Comedy Central, with Lutherville native Derek Waters and company re-enacting stories from the lives of Edgar Allan Poe, Francis Scott Key and Abraham Lincoln. The episode, which includes portions filmed at Mother's Federal Hill Grille, is at its off-the-wall best in the Poe segment. Here's some of what I wrote about the episode, and an interview I did with Waters when he filmed in Baltimore. “I didn't choose Baltimore just because it's my hometown,” Waters said during an interview in January when he and his crew were here to film part of the episode in a jam-packed, loud and extra-boozy Mother's Federal Hill Grille.

Nearly two decades after Yasmina Reza's comedy "Art" debuted to international acclaim, the story about the nature of expression and friendship continues to fascinate audiences at Bowie Community Theatre's production at Bowie Playhouse in White Marsh Park. The play, now translated into more than 30 languages, opened in 1994 in Paris. It then became a success in London, winning the Laurence Olivier Award for best comedy before arriving on Broadway in 1998 to win a Tony Award. Set in Paris, the play reveals what happens to three longtime male friends when one buys an expensive, minimalist all-white painting by a trendy artist and invites his friends to see his investment.

Fell's Point Corner Theatre, whose 1996 production of David Ives' "All in the Timing" was one of the highlights of the season, brings another offbeat Ives comedy to Baltimore tomorrow when "Don Juan in Chicago" makes its local premiere.Re-interpreting the legend of Don Juan, Ives sets the first act of his comedy in 16th century Spain and the second in modern-day Chicago. Lili Liang directs a cast headed by Richard Dean Stover as Don Juan and Richard Peck as his sidekick, Leporello. Kara Jackson and Allyson Rosen will alternate in the role of Don Juan's devoted Dona Elvira.

By now you probably know that comedian Sid Caesar died today at the age of 91. But judging by the paper-thin pieces I have been seeing on the web this afternoon, I am guessing many readers might not understand how seminal he was to the history of television and sketch comedy. Caesar deserves some cultural context and honor for the fearless and pioneering figure he was. Live television burned him up within a decade, leaving behind a guy addicted to amphetamines, downers and alcohol.

Hyattsville. -- We want comedy, laughter, hilarity in every aspect of our lives.Newspapers catch readers' attention with memorably funny headlines. They assign writers whose main job is to point up the humor in daily events. Television networks, for all their solemn talking heads, emphasize comedy. Laughter machines spice up bland, tasteless situations. Funny movies outsell all others.Politicians, businessmen, academic worthies begin speeches with jokes. Surgeons josh patients. Waiters, after they give you their names, offer witticisms about the weather.

The Beaver directs! Jerry Mathers will direct his first feature, Teleview Films' "When the Saints Come Marching In." The comedy, written by Paul Crary and produced by Paul Rapp, concerns the owner of a pro football team -- played by singer Bobby Vinton -- whose team becomes a winner thanks to the music of the legendary jazz band, the Dukes of Dixieland. The film shoots next spring in New Orleans.

"How do you get to Carnegie Hall?" "Practice, practice practice," goes the old saw.In "2 Pianos, 4 Hands," however, practice lands Ted Dykstra and Richard Greenblatt not on the concert stage, but on the theater stage. The off-Broadway hit opens a monthlong run at the Eisenhower Theater at Washington's Kennedy Center tonight.The two co-stars wrote this comedy about their own experiences as piano students, beginning in boyhood. And, in the course of the play, they demonstrate their progress with selections by composers ranging from Beethoven to Hoagy Carmichael and Elton John.

Fifty years after "The Addams Family" debuted on TV in black and white, John Astin still has that wild gleam in his eye and the same mischievous grin. With his thick mustache, albeit a white one, he could easily be Gomez Addams in his debonair golden years - minus the eyeliner, pinstriped suit and cigar. Now 84, the veteran actor recently told a rapt audience of student thespians at Glenelg High School what most people familiar with the popular show already suspected - a lot of his personality went into creating the patriarch of one of the oddest families ever on TV. Finding a part of yourself that you can meld into an authentic portrayal of a character is something all actors should pursue, he told the cast of the Columbia Center for Theatrical Arts' summer production of the Broadway musical based on the 1964-1966 series.

If you drive downtown on the Jones Falls Expressway, you might have noticed a new billboard just south of Orleans Street featuring a blurry image of George Washington and the word “DRUNK” in big bold letters. No, it's not a leftover attack ad from the 1789 presidential campaign. It's a promotion for the second season of “Drunk History,” the off-kilter Comedy Central hit created by Lutherville native Derek Waters. Season 2 of the woozy walk through our national past starts Tuesday night at 10 and includes an episode on July 22 set in and featuring three stories from 19th-century Baltimore - one each with Edgar Allan Poe, Francis Scott Key and Abraham Lincoln.

The Chesapeake Shakespeare Company loves to take advantage of the natural setting provided for its summer shows at the Patapsco Female Institute Historic Park. "As You Like It" makes their job easy, because much of the play's action takes place in the Forest of Arden. Massive old trees play their natural role quite convincingly on this hill high above Ellicott City. Of course, the weather also plays a role in such outdoor productions. There was a 35-minute rain delay during the reviewed performance, but several of the actors performed contemporary pop songs while the audience huddled under a tent until the downpour ended.

Getting revved up to hit the beach? Beyond the excitement of the big car show, it's a relatively quiet weekend in Ocean City. If you're not that into motors, you may want to simply soak in the sunny atmosphere. Or you can head north to Delaware for the Lewes Garden Tour or check out comedian Bill Cosby's performance in Salisbury. Here's what's on tap this weekend in Ocean City and nearby: OC Car and Truck Show. All things automotive, including classic vehicles and trick trucks, make the OC Car and Truck Show one of the largest car shows on the East Coast.

Journeys of one kind or another - emotional, physical, spiritual - are at the heart of Colman Domingo's 2012 play "Wild with Happy," receiving its Baltimore premiere at Center Stage . There isn't just a road trip in this work, but a car chase. Domingo always seems to be on an eventful ride, too. The Philadelphia-born playwright and actor had a speech impediment as a child, so he retreated into books and writing. He majored in journalism when he entered college, but taking an elective course in acting led him in a whole new direction.

In my April 1st preview of Amy Schumer's second season, I wrote about a sketch she does with Josh Charles spoofing Aaron Sorkin's TV style. "A double Baltimore hit: On April 15, Josh Charles guests stars, and he's terrific as one of Schumer's co-workers in a fast food restaurant," I wrote. "The co-stars alone would make this 30 minutes not to be missed on Tuesday nights this spring. " The piece aired last night with Charles and Schumer bringing trademark Sorkin urgency, anger, sexual frustration and angst to life in this wickedly clever clip.

If you didn't see the debut of HBO's"Girls" Sunday night, here's some advice: Do whatever it takes to see it. Smart people are going to be talking and talking and talking some more about it for weeks. In 30 years of writing about television, I cannot remember five other TV comedies that have blown me away the way this one did. I am sure I am only about the 50th reviewer to compare it to "The Mary Tyler Moore Show. " But I watched that one as a twentysomething baby boomer feeling for the first time that prime-time TV was speaking to and for my generation in a meaningful way. I am guessing "Girls" will have that same kind of electricity and cultural thunder for people who are in their 20s today.

"There'll always be an England," is how New Yorker magazine tags certain quaint column-ending fillers, a droll reference to the island nation's peculiar habits. Cable viewers could say the same about "The Secret Policeman's Biggest Ball," an oddly engaging comedy special on the Arts & Entertainment basic service tonight (at 10 o'clock).The show is an hour-long collection of excerpts from a comedy fund-raiser at London's Dominion Theatre, which raised money for Amnesty International in the manner that America's "Comic Relief" raises funds to fight homelessness.

Nearly 17,000 Broadstripe cable TV subscribers could lose channels such as MTV, Nickelodeon, Comedy Central, VH1 and BET if the Anne Arundel County cable provider and Viacom fail to reach an agreement by Tuesday. The dispute centers on monthly per-subscriber fees the cable company pays to carry Viacom's 23 networks. Such cutoffs typically are short-lived, lasting until the companies reach agreement. Millersville-based Broadstripe, which serves 16,684 customers in northern Anne Arundel County and part of Baltimore, said Viacom wants to substantially boost fees to renew its contract.

If you are one of the 1.2 million viewers the Comedy Central series "Broad City" attracts on average each week, you might have noticed a nod to Baltimore in the recent episode "Stolen Phone. " When a distraught Ilana - one of the show's two protagonists - bangs on the door of her phoneless best friend's New York City apartment after a panicked search, Abbi calmly greets her in a black-and-teal Maryland Institute College of Art sweatshirt. No, it was not a thrift shop find or a random hoodie selected by the wardrobe department.